BEWARE OF AFFLUENZA (27 OF 35)

Beware of Affluenza (27 of 35)
Series: Delights of a Word-Filled Marriage
John Barnett

Beware of Affluenza

One of my hobbies is to follow Global Trends. We are so fixated often as Americans on America we are out of touch with issues that most of the world is focusing upon.

This week many major world newspapers began to examine what is being called the "Super-Flu". Here is what they are saying:
Overdue Attack
Some [1] experts have been looking at the genetic structure of the virus which caused the 1918 pandemic, as well as a serious outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997 for clues which may help doctors combat such an outbreak. There were three flu pandemics in the last century, in 1918, 1957 and 1968. Even though the 1957 and 1968 outbreaks were less severe than the Spanish flu, they still accounted for 40,000,000 deaths between them (or 1% of the population). Researchers suggest that an approximate 30-year cycle between pandemics means we are well overdue for another one. (1% of America falling victim to influenza would mean 3,000,000 deaths!)
We need to listen because we have had our share of disasters with the flu or Influenza as it is properly called.

In the [2] spring of 1918, as the nation mobilized for war, Private Albert Gitchell reported to an Army hospital in Kansas. He was diagnosed with the flu, a disease doctors knew little about. Before the year was out, America would be ravaged by a flu epidemic that killed 675,000--more than in all the wars of this century combined--before disappearing as mysteriously as it began.

There is a super influenza coming that tragically will strike many people's physical bodies. However as we all know – there is something far worse that a sick and dying body – and that is a sick and dying soul.

This morning I believe that an even worse epidemic is already being reported in Tulsa. However it is not Influenza – it is Affluenza. To catch the difference, please stand with me as we read Paul's 1st letter to Timo ...

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